The destructive power of fame…

I confess to not knowing many One Direction songs, but it is always sad to hear of someone dying an untimely death.

From the Guardian:

Liam Payne, a former member of the boyband One Direction, has died aged 31 after falling from a third-floor hotel room in Buenos Aires, police have confirmed.

The singer died on Wednesday at 5pm local time.

“Liam James Payne, composer and guitarist, former member of the band One Direction, died today after falling from the third floor of a hotel in Palermo,” Buenos Aires police said in a statement.

Alberto Crescenti, head of the state emergency medical system, told Argentina’s Todo Noticias TV channel that Payne had fallen into an internal courtyard at the hotel.

“A few minutes later [an] emergency team arrived and confirmed the death of this man who we later learned was from a musical group. He had injuries incompatible with life as a result of his fall. There was no way to do anything,” Crescenti said.

Crescenti said authorities were investigating the circumstances of Payne’s death and conducting an autopsy.

In a statement on Wednesday, the police said they had gone to the hotel after being notified of an “aggressive man who could be under the effects of drugs and alcohol”, according to Reuters. The hotel manager said he heard a loud noise at the back of the hotel, and when police arrived they found that a man had fallen over the balcony in his room, the statement said.

Speaking to the Guardian in 2019, Payne opened up about his mental health, revealing he’d been in therapy for two years. He said that at the height of One Direction’s fame, he began using alcohol and an epilepsy drug as a mood stabiliser to counter the “erratic highs and lows” he was experiencing. “I just needed a little bit of help to keep me stable … it was very touch and go at times,” he said.

Last year, he said in an interview that he’d completed more than three months of sobriety. “I’m sober now, over 100 days,” he told IFL TV. “I feel amazing, I feel really, really good and the support from the fans has been really, really good, so I’m super happy.”

Payne became a father in 2017, having a son Bear Grey Payne with his then-partner, the X Factor judge Cheryl Cole. The couple split in 2018 after two years together.

Other celebrities have pointed out the toll fame can take on young people.

Rip Liam Payne. Such tragic news. I think it would be a wise move for record companies to have psychologists on their books from now on in his memory as a duty of care for the vulnerability of their young talent. Fame can be very damaging especially in today’s world. Lots of…

— Mikey Graham / Boyzone (@MRMIKEYGRAHAM) October 16, 2024

Unfortunately, the history of celebrity culture is littered with those who died young. Very sad.

Brian O'Neill

I help to manage Slugger by taking care of the site as well as running our live events. My background is in business, marketing and IT. My politics tend towards middle-of-the-road pragmatism, I am not a member of any political party. Oddly for a member of the Slugger team, I am not that interested in daily politics, preferring to write about big ideas in society. When not stuck in front of a screen, I am a parkrun Run Director.